La ragazza dagli occhi verdi

In one interview Edna said I was reading van Gogh’s letters. My God! I’m surprised he cut off only one ear Not relevant at all, but it is funny. On to the book. So, in 1962, one year before Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique kicked off the 2nd wave of feminism, and one year before the Beatles pressed th Leggi tutto

This is the follow-up to ‘The Country Girls’ (1960) and was written two years later, I wonder what Edna O’ Brien had in mind when writing the first novel, ‘The Country Girls’ – did she have a big-picture idea before writing it that she was going to write several novels about the girls? Or after she Leggi tutto

I read this about 25 years ago when I was 14, and on Saturday I was lucky enough to see Edna O'Brien (now aged 85) speak at event near where I live. She was so wonderful - warm and funny - and the book is just the same. She has a really interesting style of writing - she'll often add a non sequitur

Rereading it after 30 years, I guess I enjoyed the novel as much as I did the first time round. It is such an amusing view of the 1950s Ireland. The girls are infuriating but realistic, the film-maker hero plausible and the settings lovely. I particularly enjoyed the village mentality where everybod Leggi tutto

It's such a pleasure following this continuing drama about two Irish country girls who are now young women dealing with very adult problems. The story picks up two years after the end of “The Country Girls” when Cait and her spirited friend Baba are living in rented accommodation in Dublin. Both are Leggi tutto

The Lonely Girl is the second volume of Edna O'Brien's Country Girls Trilogy. I had read the entire trilogy back in 2004, which is when I fell in love with O'Brien, so this was a second reading. She captures so well the innocence and emotional states of Kate and her friend Baba. Baba mostly just want Leggi tutto